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What was the relationship between the Cult of Mars and the Space Marines during the time of the Heresy? Were there Techmarines? I'm thinking about starting a pre-Heresy army list and I'm wondering what my options are. There are already threads about weapons and vehicles I noticed, and the codices themselves give ideas on how old some things are, but this is something that came to mind I haven't seen addressed yet.

All the Legions would have had to have had techmarines to tend to their equipment. What would probably vary is their relationship with the Mechanicum, bearing in mind their attitudes to war and technology. The more tech-minded Legions would obviously get on better and I would imagine the more brutal Legions might get on a bit worse.

There is an Ultramarine techmarine in Collected Visions, in Ultra colours with a steampunk style backpack.

You could probably make an argument for there actually being more techmarines around during the Crusade legions than in their 40k counterparts. The latter just act to maintain and keep equipment levels up, whereas the former were constantly introducing new wargear and vehicles.

You can also imagine a wider variety of roles; imagine the introduction of new infrastructure to worlds brought into compliance, of attempts to understand alien foes or technology. Also and perhaps most importantly, the entire attitude of the Imperium towards technology, which in my mind is one of the biggest differences between the 30th and 40th millenniums. I'm sure the admech would have taken a central role in all of the above, but communication and co-operation of this with the Astartes Legions would have been vital, and thats where the Techmarines would have come in.